


Echoes of a city

by towardsmorning



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Canon Character of Color, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-17
Updated: 2012-06-17
Packaged: 2017-11-07 22:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towardsmorning/pseuds/towardsmorning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ground is silent when Lin hits it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Echoes of a city

Lin's mother had taught her that her bending was about listening to the earth.

 _You listen to it,_ Toph had said when Lin began her formal lessons, newly turned eight and face grimly determined, set in stone. _Then you can talk to it and order it around, but you have to listen first._

It had taken an age, it seemed at the time. There'd been a lot of points where Lin felt the urge to storm off because she had no idea what that meant, stood still with her feet bare, trying to listen through the soil. She could feel it there perfectly well, could feel how easy it would be to push one part up or aside, but it took nearly a month before she could feel what it was _doing_ \- the movements extending down, down, down, a complicated pattern that almost seemed to rise up through her legs and into her body, until Lin found that she couldn't quite say where the ground stopped and she began.

Lin had felt rooted in a way she never had before, and the frustration melted away, replaced by understanding. Everything seemed easier after that, working with and not against the earth, a part of it.

Now, she kneels and closes her eyes. She listens to the earth, every fibre of her being focused on it. Amon's hand touches her forehead, cold and hard, and she reaches down desperately, scrabbles to hold onto the feeling,-

The ground is silent when Lin hits it. Silent and cold and so, so separate from her. There's a memory for her to hold, but it's nothing but an echo, and she knows that one day it's going to fade and leave nothing behind.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Heartlines by Florence + the Machine.


End file.
